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The Wireless Gigabit Alliance has teamed up with the Wi-Fi Alliance on the next-generation wireless connectivity standard aptly named Wi-Gig that will put both the Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n WiFi specifications to shame with transfer rates up to 7Gbps. For comparison, 802.11n WiFi peaks at the theoretical maximum of 600Mbps.

According to a statement released earlier today on the Wireless Gigabit Alliance’s site, the multi-gigabit wireless networking technology will support high-performance applications like wireless high-definition video transfer. The technology will operate in the unlicensed 60GHz spectrum and both the Wi-Fi Alliance and the WiGig Alliance will share technology specifications in order to make WiGig backwards-compatible with the ubiquitous WiFi networks. Put simply, WiGig-compliant devices will be able to hand over sessions to operate in the 2.4 or 5 GHz band used by the existing 802.11a/b/g/n networks.

As a result, a new class of tri-band WiFi certified devices, expected on the market at a later stage, will be able to connect wirelessly at multi-gigabit wireless speeds while falling back to WiFi when needed. The WiGig technology will augment WiFi rather then replace it, the organization said, partly due to the fact that WiGig networks won’t be able to match the coverage of WiFi networks. Therein lies the answer to your question “is this thing going to replace wired cables once and for all.”

The Wireless Gigabit Alliance has already published 1.0 specification and launched adopter program for vendors looking to build WiGig-complaint devices. Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst with Enderle Group, believes the technology will take off in a big way because it’s being backed by industry heavy-weights:

WiGig shows enormous potential to drive the kind of wireless performance that businesses and consumers need The organization has brought together a critical mass of diverse industry leaders, and with the publication of its unified specification, WiGig is enabling the next generation of multi-gigabit wireless products for multiple platforms and applications.

Apple, which was one of the first major tech firms to adopt the emerging WiFi standard with its wireless base station called AirPort, refused to comment on the WiGig Alliance’s chairman and president Ali Sadri’s portrayal in a Los Angeles Times article describing Apple as an “innovator in driving new technology uptake.”Do I sense WiGig-enabled Macs on the horizon?